Microsoft Office for
Macintosh OS XThis review was begun
in July 2002 and completed in October 2003

Steve WebberSubmitted for Publication
October 6, 2003

In November of 2001 I
bought a G4 and it came with OS X. I really liked the looks of the aqua
interface but didn’t like the way it performed. After upgrading to OS
X.01 the performance was much improved but I was growing old waiting
for “Classic Mode” to start-up to use Microsoft Office for Macintosh
1998. Once open it was fine but Classic Mode seemed to take forever to
load.

I
used Microsoft Office 2000 at work on a Windows NT network and have
come to love the protected memory environment it uses. I’d have Word
crash but would simply restart and go back to work. Occasionally I need
to log off and restart to get the auto save feature to function
properly, so it was the protected memory feature of OS X that I was
interested in. I hated the way my browser would crash in OS 8.6 and
take down my whole system.

Microsoft
Office is a suite of programs that include word processing (Word),
spread sheets (Excel), presentation software (PowerPoint), and e-mail
client/organizer (Entourage). The windows world also gets a database
program (Access), but Microsoft does not offer that to the Macintosh
community. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access for Windows are all sold
as stand-alone programs and each could take years to find every neat
and useful feature. Even without Access Microsoft Office for OS X is a
heavy-duty set of programs, and the fact that they work well together
has given Microsoft the market share of the business computing in both
the PC and Mac communities. These are all serious programs and well
worth the $ 399.00 suggested retail price.

I
contacted Microsoft about presenting the advantages of Microsoft Office
for OS X to our Macintosh User Group but didn’t have much success. As
2002 ticked away, I asked about a review copy the end of June and in
early July it arrived on Friday of a weekend promising uncomfortable
weather and nothing to do. Great!

Installation
was a piece of cake. Drag the folder to my hard disk and launch the
application. After turning off some of the auto-formatting features I
hate, I was in business. I started right off on Word, popping open some
old Excel files and some PowerPoint presentations. Everything worked
great.

Fig.
1: Word interface with formatting palette

First
impression—Elegant. I liked the formatting palette that appears and
disappears from the button bar with a click of the mouse and use of the
Aqua interface. I still find the updated icons in the button bar take a
little getting used to but Microsoft provided the option of using
traditional ones when setting up the programs the first time—live
dangerously.

In
2001 I had put together an 80-page “scrapbook” in Word 98 but found I
was limited in file size by the 96 megabytes of memory I have on my
Power PC. The files are filled with photographs so I was choking the
computer and Word at around 40 Megs. What a difference in Word for OS X!

I
combined three of the files before I got Word to choke. This, I
believe, must be due to OS X’s dynamic memory feature as I was
surprised to learn the Microsoft maximum file size is 32 MB. When
I restarted Word my 75-MB auto-save file reappeared and I promptly
saved it to a 36-MB PDF file—neat, huh?

Drawing
features are much improved and lots of templates and “wizards” provide
creative tools for the casual user. You can do simple flow charts and
use templates to make organization charts and many other standard
graphics with a professional look. There are lots of clip art and
styles provided for all three programs, making the Office suite a
bargain compared to individual programs.

I’ve
got years of old excel files from taxes and miscellaneous records and
to date they all have easily opened with the new software. Again the
updated icons take a little getting use to, but they are
identified when you move the mouse to them. The formatting palette is
also available with a click of the mouse, or another click will make it
disappear. When you make a change to a spreadsheet the Aqua interface
looks like it is 3-dimensional.

PowerPoint
also opens earlier versions in a snap. Similar icons are getting to be
familiar, and it has a neat feature where you can save a presentation
as an IMovie. However, a 3.5-megabyte presentation turns into a
550-megabyte movie so you better have a CD burner or stock in IOmega.
It’s a neat feature though.

As
I proceeded with Office into the late summer and fall, I forgot to
complete this review. Guilt-ridden I have decided it’s time. Microsoft
has announced a new offering which is a repackaging of Microsoft Office
for OS X with the addition of Virtual PC 6.1. I have VPC 5.0.4 on my G4
but it’s too slow on my aged G4 466. I presume the newer G4s with
giga-speed may be more satisfying but think that if Microsoft really
wanted to provide a useful package to the Macintosh community they
would bust a butt getting it upgraded for the G5 and include Access
with the VPC package. Since Access is not available for the Macintosh
and VPC emulates the Wintel desktop, this would allow the Macintosh
community to connect to the corporate IT community and be a worthwhile
addition to a competent suite of programs. Since Word, Excel, and
PowerPoint files are interchangeable between Mac/Dos platforms, Access
is the missing piece.

I’d
also like to see Microsoft deal with the interchange of Mac files to
DOS files. The smart quotes and symbol characters, which made the
Macintosh the preferred Desk Top Publishing platform of choice in the
late 80s and early 90s, need to be interchangeable with the control
characters available in the DOS programs. You can always tell e-mails
from Mac users because of the weird characters generated by symbols,
apostrophes, and the smart quotes when you copy Word-generated messages
into e-mail.

Hey,
it seems the upgrade price is more reasonable, if the pop-ups on the
internet are true, and Microsoft Office for Mac OS X would pay for
itself by not having to wait for the Classic Mode to open. Sorry it
took me so long to complete this review.

Details:
(from the Mactopia web site)

Office v. X for Mac
Professional EditionProfessional
Tools. Complete Compatibility.
This edition of Office v. X includes Virtual PC for Mac Version 6.1
with Microsoft Windows® XP Professional, a powerful tool that lets
you run Windows-based applications on your Mac. Get the professional
tools and complete compatibility you need for only $499* for the full
version, or $329* for the upgrade. Programs and retail prices may vary;
not available via Microsoft Volume Licensing programs. Please contact
individual resellers for details.
System Requirements for Virtual PC for Mac Version 6.1To run
Virtual PC for Mac Version 6.1, your computer must meet the following
requirements:

500MHz native2 G3 or
G4 Macintosh with a CD-ROM drive (Please note that Virtual PC for Mac
Versions 6.1 and lower do not run on the G5 Macintosh)

Mac OS X version
10.1.5, or 10.2.1 (Jaguar) or later

To use Virtual PC for
Mac Version 6.1 for OS 9, you need:

Any native2 G3 or G4
Macintosh with a CD-ROM drive

Mac OS 9.2.2

To use the Windows XP
Professional Guest OS with Virtual PC for Mac Version 6.1, you need:

256 MB physical RAM
(Mac OS X)

192 MB physical RAM
(Mac OS 9)

2 GB free hard disk
space

Office v. X for Mac
Standard EditionJust What
You Need. Just for Mac OS X
Take advantage of the new low price on Microsoft® Office v. X
Standard Edition. Office v. X combines compatibility between Macs and
PCs with ease of use. Create rich documents, useful spreadsheets and
compelling presentations, and manage your personal information for only
$399* for the full version, or $239* for the version upgrade of
Standard Edition. It comes with full-featured versions of Word X, Excel
X, PowerPoint® X and Entourage® X. Programs and prices may
vary. Please contact individual resellers for details.
System Requirements for Office 2001 for Mac
To use Microsoft Office 2001 for Mac, your computer must meet the
following requirements:

A CD-ROM drive or a
connection to a network if installing from a network volume

A monitor that can
display 256 grays or 256 colors and a resolution of 640 x 480 or higher

Additional items or services required to use certain features:

9600 bits per second
(BPS) modem (28.8 Kbps or higher recommended)

An Internet
connection through either an Internet service provider (ISP) or a
network. Internet access might require a separate fee to an ISP; local
or long-distance telephone charges might also apply.